This invention relates to mobile telephones and methods of using and renting them, and particularly to mobile telephones, systems and methods for use in rental vehicles, such as rental cars and trucks, taxis, limousines, golf carts, boats and aircraft, and in other rentals such as in hotels, motels, restaurants, catering halls, convention centers, etc.
One of the problems in renting mobile telephones lies in the risk involved with allowing the rental customer to make calls without any limits as to time or charges. Thus, even though the customer uses a valid credit card to which to charge the cost of the rental, and even though the renting company may obtain authorization for a specific amount of charges from the credit card company before the rental is made, there is nothing to prevent the customer from incurring charges exceeding that amount. The result may be that the excess charges never are paid. A similar problem exists with enforcing time limits agreed to by the customer when renting the phone.
The foregoing problem is complicated by the fact that the telephone lessor usually would like to allow customers to use the telephone beyond the pre-determined credit or time limits, as long as he or she has sufficient credit to pay for the extra use.
One prior mobile telephone rental approach used with rental vehicles is to provide a credit card reader with the telephone in the vehicle. The user usually must insert his or her credit card into the reader in order to use the phone. This has several disadvantages. First, the card reader is expensive and takes up a considerable amount of space. Secondly, the need to insert a credit card is cumbersome and can be dangerous, if it is the driver of the vehicle who is using the phone. Also, in most such devices, although verification of the credit card is performed, authorization of an amount of credit is not. Thus, even though the call is charged to a valid card, there is no assurance that the holder has not exceeded the limit of charges on his card. Thus, there is a significant chance that the rental company will not be paid for the call.
Billing for the call is computed at a central station, and a bill usually is sent to the rental company or customers only relatively infrequently. Thus, the user usually does not know the amount of the charges for some time and cannot get reimbursement for the costs from his employer or client until well after the event.
An additional problem is that mounting the card reader often requires holes to be cut in the interior of the car. This is highly undesirable for rental cars because the holes reduce the value of the cars after the phones are removed.
In another prior system, portable cellular telephones are rented by the customer, carried out to the car, and carried back to the rental station when returned. The rental usually is arranged at a counter separate from the vehicle rental counter, and a separate bill and credit card verification are required.
This prior system is cumbersome, labor-intensive, slow and inconvenient for both the customer and the rental company. Moreover, the telephones are not firmly secured in the vehicle and thus can be dropped and mishandled by the customer or easily stolen by thieves. Further, the loose telephones are relatively clumsy to use, and thus may reduce the safety of operation of the vehicle if the driver of the vehicle uses the phone while driving.
In neither of the foregoing systems does the telephone compute and store rental charges for the phone. This means that billing must be computed elsewhere, with extra delays.
Another prior system, sold under the trademark "AUTOMATE" by Megatrend Telecommunications of Thomaston, Conn., uses an on-board microcomputer to compute the charges for the phone usage and, has an integral printer. The charges and other call details are not stored but are printed as the calls are being made. In limousines and taxis, etc., the printed call detail record is readily accessible to the driver, who can present the bill to the customer on the spot, and get paid for the calls then or later.
Similar systems are sold by Megatrend Telecommunications under the marks "TABLEMATE" and "FIRSTMATE" for use in restaurants and boats, respectively.
In rental cars, the customers are not given access to the printer. The printer typically is locked in a case kept in the trunk of the car. When the car is returned, an employee unlocks the case and removes the printed strip bearing the call data and charges, and turns it into the rental desk where a corresponding bill is prepared. The telephone is mounted securely in the car.
The Automate system has several advantages over the other prior systems described above. For example, the phones are mounted securely in the cars and need not be moved during either rental or return. Bills can be prepared and given to the customers faster. Credit card readers are not required. However, the system requires that an employee manually fetch the phone usage print-out and turn it into the rental desk. If the employee forgets or otherwise fails to do this, the customer is not charged for the use of the phone, and the rental company loses revenues. Furthermore, installation of the device in the cars can be relatively difficult and expensive, in that an electric cable is used to connect the telephone and computer in the front seat area of the car to the printer in the trunk. Of course, the printer adds cost to the system. The need to keep the printer locked up and located in the trunk of the car slows the retrieval of the printed tickets and, therefore, adds labor cost to the process.
Other general systems for mobile telephone rentals have been proposed but are not known to have been used commercially to any significant extent.
In hotels, motels, convention centers, and similar temporary locations for businesses and people, there is a need for mobile telephone rentals.
Often, the hotel or motel guest needs a mobile telephone for use on business and meetings conducted outside the hotel or motel, or in rooms within the hotel whose telephone service is inadequate. Again, as with the rental of mobile phones in rental vehicles, there is a need for quickly and easily determining call details and charges to be added to the guest's hotel bill when he or she checks out. Otherwise, there might well be a serious delay in the billings for such rentals, with a concomitant loss of earnings and/or unhappiness of customers. Other problems with and deterrents to such rentals are the risk and other factors mentioned above.
Some prior cellular mobile telephones have "transceiver locks", by means of which the mobile telephone transceiver is disabled entirely when a certain combination of keys is pressed by the user, thus preventing unwanted use while the owner or renter is away from the phone. This system does not always work when an interface is added to enable the use of an ordinary telephone with the cellular phone.
In rental telephones, another problem is that calls directed to the prior renter of the phone can be a nuisance to the new renter of the phone. Also, because charges are made for incoming calls as well as outgoing calls, they can cause the new renter expense and dissatisfaction.
"Dropped calls" are a special problem in mobile telephones. When a call connection is broken by system interference, one of the parties must re-make the call, and the party being charged for the call expects credit for the last minute of the call. Providing this credit to the customer is a problem, especially in a mobile telephone with an interface permitting the use of an ordinary telephone.